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katsbooks's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
“...at times, the greatest courage of all is to live.”
“You are not evil... You have just been robbed of love. Of light.”
“At times the greatest courage of all is to live.”
I remember really being intrigued by this book as a kid but I can't say it holds up. First, the positives. The writing could be really beautiful and descriptive at times. The setting felt really beautiful and could become a character all on its own at certain moments. The premise itself was also really intriguing. I thought the use of an anthropomorphic perspective was really fun and interesting. All of these things worked together to make a really entrancing vibe. However, that's basically where the positives end for me. In terms of writing, the author used third person omniscient narration and there were definitely moments when we would switch very suddenly from character to character and that could be very jarring. I didn't appreciate the overtly Anglo-Christian parallels to the wolves mythology. Like, it's a fantasy, you could go anywhere with it, and the equivalent to wolf-Jesus is all you could come up with? I can appreciate a book with a good moral message but, especially at the end, it felt a bit heavy-handed. It was so obvious he was trying to make a point. (I would like to fully appreciate that this is a young adult/middle grade book so I can understand the author being a little more transparent about his message given his younger audience. As an adult, the obviousness took me out of the story but that's why I wasn't the intended audience, I suppose.) Lastly, my biggest negative and the reason I only gave this book 2 stars was the blantant sexism. I mean, sexism is unnecessary in any work of literature but it felt extra unnecessary here. This was an anthropomorphic fantasy. The characters weren't even human! Huttser was rude to his mate, Palla, constantly because Huttser is "dominant" so that translated to him ordering Palla around. The two main "villains" turned evil becauseeach of them in someway failed to be a mother, which is obviously the sole purpose of any female. The only 3 people to possess the power of "The Sight" are Morgra, Larka and Fell, Fell being the only male to possess it. Morgra and Larka both die! Morgra because she's an evil villain and Larka as a sacrifice to save the literal world. And Fell gets to live out his life with his family. He even gets a redemption arc after Morgra abuses him into thinking he's evil. Larka saves him from himself, naturally. The message I got here was women are worthless unless they're serving all of those around them and if they're not doing that, then obviously, they become evil hags. This very rarely happens but I think I will probably forego the second book in this series since I disliked the first so much.
“You are not evil... You have just been robbed of love. Of light.”
“At times the greatest courage of all is to live.”
I remember really being intrigued by this book as a kid but I can't say it holds up. First, the positives. The writing could be really beautiful and descriptive at times. The setting felt really beautiful and could become a character all on its own at certain moments. The premise itself was also really intriguing. I thought the use of an anthropomorphic perspective was really fun and interesting. All of these things worked together to make a really entrancing vibe. However, that's basically where the positives end for me. In terms of writing, the author used third person omniscient narration and there were definitely moments when we would switch very suddenly from character to character and that could be very jarring. I didn't appreciate the overtly Anglo-Christian parallels to the wolves mythology. Like, it's a fantasy, you could go anywhere with it, and the equivalent to wolf-Jesus is all you could come up with? I can appreciate a book with a good moral message but, especially at the end, it felt a bit heavy-handed. It was so obvious he was trying to make a point. (I would like to fully appreciate that this is a young adult/middle grade book so I can understand the author being a little more transparent about his message given his younger audience. As an adult, the obviousness took me out of the story but that's why I wasn't the intended audience, I suppose.) Lastly, my biggest negative and the reason I only gave this book 2 stars was the blantant sexism. I mean, sexism is unnecessary in any work of literature but it felt extra unnecessary here. This was an anthropomorphic fantasy. The characters weren't even human! Huttser was rude to his mate, Palla, constantly because Huttser is "dominant" so that translated to him ordering Palla around. The two main "villains" turned evil because
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Gaslighting, Grief, Infertility, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, Violence, and War
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